March 30th

The North Central Louisiana Arts Council is now selling tickets for our Keep the Arts Afloat fundraiser. Our goal is to sell 250 tickets at $100 each and give away $10,000. Our final drawing is scheduled for June 17th, during the Peach Art Exhibit Opening reception. This means there is only three months left to get your tickets this year so do it fast! Act really quickly and win the early bird drawing on April 9: the prize is a $350 gift certificate to Lewis Boutique. You need not be present to win.

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Leader News Service
Two founders of The Domestic Abuse Resistance Team recently joined the Crown Princess of Denmark, former President Bill Clinton, Oscar-award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and legendary singer Gloria Gaynor at an international conference to end violence against women in Washington, D.C.
DART founders Terrie Queen Autrey and Terry Nix traveled to the nation’s capitol to attend the second World Conference of Women’s Shelters.
“Kate Sartor Hilburn and I were invited to display our collaborative art exhibit, Beating Hearts: Stories of Domestic Violence at the conference,” Autrey explained. “But we accepted that invitation before Wiley Hilburn, Kate’s husband, was diagnosed with cancer. Kate has been with Wiley in Little Rock for over 10 weeks since Christmas. We finally realized that Kate would not be able to attend the conference. That’s when Terry Nix stepped in.”
According to Hilburn, Nix was the ideal choice to make the trip in her place. “As the founding President of DART and a model for one of the pieces in our exhibit, Terry has been a strong supporter of our work for many years. She has even performed dramatic readings at opening receptions of our show in Shreveport and Atlanta. If I could not personally install my work and participate in the conference, I was grateful for Terry’s willingness to help.”
Nix offered to accompany Autrey to Washington to install the show, and to attend the conference as well.
“It was an incredibly impressive event,” Nix reported. “Over 1,600 participants from over 92 countries were there, an amazing gathering of people from all over the world, activists and crusaders who are passionate about ending violence against women.”

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It’s called the “Fred Dean Pro Day Camp” on Saturday, but it easily could be a gathering of well-known and highly-successful linemen, both currently and formerly employed in the National Football League.
Throw in a linebacker who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame almost a year ago and you’ve got the makings of the best early spring youth instructional clinic ever sponsored by the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Central Louisiana.
Youngsters in Ruston, Lincoln Parish and the surrounding area who want to learn the game of football from the best will get their chance later this month.

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Ruston High’s varsity baseball team improved to a 15-5 record with an 8-0 victory over Bastrop on Thursday.
Tanner Frasier got the pitching decision and Clayton Cline led the offense with a two-run home run.
Ruston High’s freshmen got a five-strikeout starting performance by Peyton Spangler and Chris Bishop finished up in relief to help lead a recent 12-11 victory over West Monroe.

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WACO, Texas — Baylor head women’s basketball coach and former Louisiana Tech University guard and assistant coach Kim Mulkey has been diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, school officials announced today.
“I noticed while we were in Des Moines last week that my tongue felt strange. Yesterday I noticed when I smiled, only the left side of my mouth was working. Also, my right eye was drooping and I couldn’t hear properly out of my right ear. Our trainer, Alex Olson, examined me before practice and it was decided I needed immediate medical care. Instead of going to practice, I went to the doctor,” said Mulkey.

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Ever since the North Central Alliance for Partners in Prevention started doing mock crashes at the schools in Lincoln Parish, there has been a raised awareness of the consequences of drunk driving.
The mock crash held at Choudrant High School Tuesday morning was one of the more startling ones they have done, and the shock factor was evident by the silent audience.
Even though it is sponsored by the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, the mock crash is primarily done by the school’s student council who write the script, act and serve as role models to their fellow students.

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Throughout the course of my existence, I have been subjected to a countless number of book series, movie franchises and other pop culture phenomena that have deeply entrenched themselves, at least for a little while, in the minds of so many in the world.
From Harry Potter to Pokemon to Twilight, I have watched as millions of people have flocked to these attractions, all screaming for and loving their new-found joy, all while I have sat in the background choosing to not participate in the activities.
It didn’t really strike me that I avoided these frenzies until another fever decided to strike the world in the past few weeks with the “Hunger Games.”

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The shocked look on CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s face as he emerged from the Supreme Court’s oral arguments over Obamacare was priceless:
“This was a train wreck for the Obama administration,” Toobin said Tuesday. “This law looks like it’s going to be struck down. I’m telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law, were wrong.”
By Wednesday, Toobin had upped the ante: “This still looks like a train wreck for the Obama administration, and it may also be a plane wreck. This entire law is now in serious trouble. It also seems that the individual mandate is doomed.”

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The Louisiana Tech’s record-setting Eco-car “Roadster” will be featured nationally on ESPN2’s “NASCAR Now” program Sunday in a segment hosted by NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger.
Allmendinger and Shell Indycar driver Helio Castroneves raced the “Roadster” around the course at the Shell Houston Open as part of a program segment called “Digital Dinger.” The race was recorded as part of the pre-event activity surrounding the PGA’s Shell Houston Open and Shell’s Eco-marathon, which both take place this weekend.

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